Cortina may have been content and grateful for her new life, but I was not, and for two reasons. Firstly, and quite selfishly, since her life and my future were intricately bound via the Essenscape, I needed her to do more, and I knew she was capable of much more. Secondly, I had full observational access to her emotions, the place where truth cannot hide. I knew Cortina’s unsuppressed desires, and as a regular visitor, I too carried those emotions almost feeling them as she does.

In just a few weeks, Cortina would be remarried, move out of the bar and restaurant into a newly built house she had bought near the children’s school, and start a new job selling mortgages, yet another role for which she had no experience. Life was about to become very straightforward and far less gruelling. In other words, comfortable. Too comfortable, I feared. It was time to use my only tool and engineer a life event for Tina that hopefully would reignite the soul of my friend of complex harmonies and motivate her to push her humanity a lot further.

There are limits to my powers of creating an event as I cannot alter the flow of time and fate by more than a minute amount. There was a man nearby, near enough to be diverted into Cortina’s path without altering any short-term destinies. ‘Him’ was not known to me but I have sensed his presence on a number of occasions, but not for a long time. As a child ‘Him’ was a regular visitor to our glade, he often walked a great many miles with his friend and his dog to experience the mysterious sensations that he could barely register whilst he was unwittingly amongst us.

He was recovering from years of demanding work, extensive travel, and, let us call it, unrestrained leisure. He was bouncing back from a breakdown, or perhaps more accurately, a shutdown of common sense. He was finally ending a thirteen-year marriage that, with hindsight, had been founded on an irrational perspective and little else, a relationship devoid of real meaning and love

He was bereft of assets, having sold his share in his property to clear his debts. He had a car, no home, and a new job. Emotionally, he was clearly in no man’s land, not exactly a great catch for anyone but the most desperate, and certainly not for Cortina, who was now independent, successful and had a comfortable future ahead of her.

Well, that is what you might think! I, however, come from a more nuanced world, and I thought differently. He was on a temporary contract in a city over an hour’s drive away, across the Pennines, that would require navigating fairly dreadful roads to reach. What could be more natural, then, than staying in a little bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere, miles from where he needed to be every day?

Never underestimate the power of a little whimsical knowing or a wink from mother nature or a slight mystic nudge …….

And so it occurred that one morning, while Cortina was busy preparing to open the bar and restaurant, the owner walked in, accompanied by a man she didn’t recognise. He lived in a nearby village and had recommended the establishment and ‘Him.’

Their meeting was nothing dramatic, no grand gestures, no sudden revelations. But something subtle shifted in the air, unnoticed by both of them. For Cortina, it was the quiet presence of someone who seemed out of place, and yet, not entirely so. For ‘Him,’ it was the warmth of the familiar, the sort of ease that comes when you least expect it. Neither of them understood it at the time, but the seeds of something more were quietly taking root, waiting for the right moment to blossom.

In the whirlwind of her busy day, Cortina didn’t pause to analyse this new connection, and ‘Him’ simply accepted it as another part of the day’s passing. But there was an unspoken recognition, a flicker of something, something that neither of them were yet ready to admit. Just in case you, the reader, are interested, I could not stop beaming with pride and self-importance. I knew I had done good. I am sure that my unbecoming reactions were noticed, but the Council of Shadows turned a blind eye, allowing a little self-indulgence on this one occasion.

Over the next couple of weeks, they conversed as best two people can across a busy bar when one of them is serving. They were just comfortable with each other; neither had any motive or desire for more. Cortina was getting married soon and starting a new life. ‘Him’ was not sure who he was or where he was going, just enjoying his new, simple emotional world and being challenged by the logical and predictable world of digital computing. Cortina only got one evening off each week, which was normally reserved for doing nothing and being with her children. So, when ‘Him’ asked her out for dinner, her automatic response would normally have been a polite “no thank you”, but instead, she accepted. Once again, I am going to take credit for this, as I had been whispering to her conscience so incessantly that I am sure my normally weak and unconvincing murmurings found a way through.

On her night off later that week, they went to the restaurant where her fiancé managed the front of house, to reinforce the innocence of their time together and maybe so each could protect themselves from the temptation of the other. Cortina spent the whole time recounting how hard her life was now—nothing about her past, nothing about her future, and nothing about ‘Him’. At one point, when their main course was finished and there was just an unpeeled prawn left on her plate (she didn’t know what to do with it), he simply picked it up, peeled it, and put it back. Simultaneously, Cortina said, “I just want someone to look after me for a change.” In that precise moment in time, the seeds of love exploded. Each was aware that something—though still unidentified and not understood—had been set in motion. What was carefully engineered as a safe and innocent encounter, involving a one-sided conversation guaranteed to put off the most ardent of suitors, was about to change their lives.

Proper decorum was maintained until they had driven off from the restaurant and could stop the car and embrace. There was no nervousness, no words—just the power of nature riding a wave of inevitability. When they returned to the bar and restaurant, they continued to hold hands in public, although behind their backs, as if no one would notice. I know that it was an act of love that neither was able to prevent.

An evening over dinner was repeated for the next four or five weeks, and the idea of them becoming a couple, to those who lived or worked closely with Cortina, became something they wished for. Strangely, her fiancé remained completely unaware, as if some mystical shroud kept them from his gaze. He knew ‘Him’ of course but was ignorant of what was developing.

Finally, the day of her wedding approached, and on the way back from their latest restaurant date, Cortina said that if ‘Him’ asked her not to marry in a couple of days, she would not. ‘Him’ did not trust himself enough to ask her. There were two young children innocently caught up in this, and he had no sense of who he was. He had no confidence in his own goodness or motivations, no trust in himself; he felt that he was an emotional risk and explained this to her. Of course, Cortina, being the person she was, understood, after all their relationship was based on little more than a handful of dinner dates

At the same time people around Cortina were becoming concerned. They were in no doubt that her upcoming marriage was a bad idea, and they did what they could to convince her, even going so far as to invite ‘Him’ to her hen night. Finally, the day arrived. ‘Him’ was elsewhere, as his room had been previously booked for guests. It was a fairly big affair, and all her family had travelled to be there. But even on the day, at the eleventh hour, her father came out of his shell, defying the opinions of his wife, and told her that it was not too late to back out. The owner of the bar and restaurant took her to her office and, blocking her exit, threatened to not let her out until she came to her senses.

Cortina did get married that day, and the following day, she flew out to Spain with her new husband, where she slept for almost two weeks………….

………… Cortina’s new life, or perhaps better described as her new domestic arrangement, was everything she had originally planned. She was refreshed from her break, her new job had started well, her motherly responsibilities were greatly simplified, and she finally had time and predictability in her days. At long last, she had achieved the transformation she had worked so hard for.

And yet, she could not quiet the little imp in her head, the one tormenting and teasing her emotions, persistently reminding her that something or someone was missing. Her world was not yet complete.

Her powerful intuition knew what neither of them yet understood, so Cortina found herself phoning her old workplace and leaving a message with a trusted friend for ‘Him’, inviting him to visit. It took three attempts before, one evening, he appeared sheepishly at her door with a bottle of wine. He came in and sat in an armchair, keeping a safe distance from her. She told him he didn’t need to do that and invited him to sit with her. I’ll leave you to guess the rest; their faltering relationship faltered no more.

A summer, a splendid tapestry of moments, unfolded as they spent every possible moment together. Cortina hid the relationship from her new husband, though only barely. The children spent time with ‘Him’ and enjoyed days out together at places like theme parks, quickly growing fond of him. Cortina even took ‘Him’ to a friend’s wedding reception and cared little about neighbours noticing his car at her house when her husband was at work. Most weekends, they spent one evening and night together at a large hotel. They were simply effortless together; their other worlds dissolved, and their time together flowed seamlessly.

They were happy, steadily moving toward the inevitable, when his work required him to relocate to California for six months. This was a time before video calls, messaging apps, or even email. There were only handwritten letters and prohibitively expensive landline calls. The day came when they had to part again, both full of promises to keep their love alive. Yet, deep down, they both knew the truth. Long-distance relationships rarely endure, especially when still so new and built more on potential than substance.